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Ubisoft
Ubisoft is a French video game company, headquartered in Montreuil. They publishes famous video games series like Assassin Creed, Far Cry, Tom Clancy's and more. They are the 4th largest video game company as public limited. History Origins It started off as a family business with the Guillemot family as a farming support business for farmers in Britanny and nearby regions including the UK. 5 sons of the Guillemot family gain business experience not only from managing the company but also from university, they used their experience to improve the company when their farming business starts to wane. The brothers started to diversify their products with one of the brothers, Claude starts an idea to sell CD media before expanding towards computers and later, video games. They found out that the cost of buying computer supplies locally is expensive than buying from Britain, this gives them the idea of mail order business of computers and softwares. This create their first business, Guillemot Informatique in 1984, they start with mail order before expanding towards selling towards local retailers, since they are undercutting other suppliers by 50% cost of new titles. They are earning about 40 million French francs and next year, they grow into Guillemot Corporation with the purpose of distributing and selling computer hardware as the previous predecessor. They soon realized that the video game industry is lucrative business and decide to focus on developing video games since they already have experience of publishing and distributing. Soon, Ubisoft is founded, the name UbiSoft meant "ubiquitous" software. Beginnings Their offices started in Paris in the neighborhood, Creteil. The brothers use a chateau in Britanny as a primary scpae for development and hoping to lure potential developers, this also help to manage the expectations of the developers they are going to hire. With new developers coming in to work for Ubisoft, they start to publish these game like Zombi, Fer et Flamme and more. Their first game, Zombi have become a critical and commericial success and sold about 5000 copies by January 1987. They also have distribution partnership in Spain and West Germany, they also import games to distribute in France like Commando and Ikari Warriors. In 1988, Yves Guillemot becomes the CEO of the company. Soon, the cost of maintaining a chateau is expensive and the developers about half-dozen moved to the main HQ instead. A notable employee named Michel Ancel was one of the first hire, although he is a teenager but he is noticed for his animation skills. His family moved to the chateau but since the chateau is closing down and could not afford the cost of living in Paris, they moved back to Montpellier, Southern France. He was told to stand by and he returned with a prototype game with high animated features which intrigued the brothers. Michel Guillemot decide to make the project bigger by setting up an new studio in Montreuil, another neighborhood in Paris that housed 100 developers in 1994. The new game will also be targeted for fifth generation console like Playstation and Atari Jaguar. This game is Rayman and was released in 1995 and becomes a critical success that whole world knows Ubisoft. Growth and Expansion Soon, Ubisoft makes deals with other publisher to publish their games in France. They have expand to other markets and by 1993, become the biggest video game publisher in France. In 1996, they become a public company and expand their developer studios to Annecy, Shanghai, Montreal, and Milan. Despite these success, they don't an intellectual property in the United States as their game Rayman don't sell well in US. When the Internet came in 1999, they set up a free to play game company called Gameloft, this allow to license their properties to other companies which increase the share value of Ubisoft. With these extra income, they are able buyout Red Storm Entertainment, which create famous game titles, Tom Clancy and it was popular in the United States. This give them extra profit in the United States market and Ubisoft help Red Storm to expand the Tom Clancy series with new titles like '''Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon '''and '''Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. '''Soon Ubisoft worked with Mircosoft to create Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series to challenge its PS2 exclusive rival, Metal Gear Solid in 2002. This not only helped to sell the Xbox console well but also show that Ubisoft and its developer, Montreal is important in the video game industry. In March 2001, Gores Technology Group sold their software company, The Learning Company's entertainment division to Ubisoft. This gave them access to notable titles like Prince of Persia and its Montreal company developed its sequel, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and it becomes a popular hit. Soon, Ubisoft starts to develop other not well known games. Steady Growth Games Early Games (1986-1990) Category:Companies